by Brett Williams (@brettwilliams6)
Tom Ng and Joshua Frank have been performing as Gong Gong Gong for the better part of a decade. But aside from their early demos and a few live recordings, the pair has only released one full-length album on their own. Instead, they’ve opted to flood their discography with collaborative efforts like their “Rhythm n’ Drone” series, which features former bandmates from Ng and Frank’s respective past projects Hot & Cold and The Offset: Spectacles. Their latest alliance is with the Taiwanese duo Mong Tong (brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi), whose numerous self-released singles and EPs package the vivid sonic imagery of Southeast Asia into nuggets of atmospheric, experimental pop.
Self-described as “an imagined soundtrack for a lost kung fu film,” Mongkok Duel brings the two forward-thinking groups together in an experiment that draws on elements of garage punk, krautrock and, perhaps most importantly, 70’s funk, a critical aesthetic element in so many of the era’s best (and worst) martial arts exploitation films. Being presented as a musical score, the songs on Mongkok Duel are all instrumentals, focused on creating moods that reflect the phantom plot points implied by the tracks’ titles.
“Escaping Encirclements” launches the record, setting the stage with a five minute, one-chord vamp driven by a simple, thumping bass line serving as the undercurrent for the ambling, rhythmic musings of the band’s two guitarists. “Something Isn’t Right” ups the tempo, introducing a sense of restlessness to the already invigorating set as its twangy drone riffs escalate and intensify, signifying the emergence of an approaching conflict. The ensuing scenes are orchestrated by an extraordinary array of sounds, alternating between the rapid-fire noise rock of “A Mountain Doesn’t Budge,” the high-powered synthesizer fanfare of “Untouchable,” and the meandering, distorted slow-jam of “Unreal Shapes (Dreamland II).” The album’s masterful centerpiece is the eleven minute “Criss-Cross.” A slow burning epic, the first half rolls along at a snail’s pace, pulsing with noodling synth and guitar lines until the six-minute mark when the track erupts into a convulsive display of power and ferocity. A tinny, dissonant guitar line punctuated by Jimi Hendrix chords and percussive scratches carries the track through to its fadeout.
Film scores are generally regarded as intricately designed accompaniments to movies, painstakingly crafted to line up with their most essential story beats and maximize their emotional effects - and for the most part, they’re approached that way by composers. The music video the group released for “Escaping Encirclements” paints a slightly different picture. The video shows the four musicians facing each other, playing in a cramped booth at Presidential Piano Co., the small rehearsal space and studio in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong where the music was recorded. The track and the rest of the album are given a kind of fly-on-the-wall feel by the video, countering the immersive quality of the album’s concept. This perception ultimately serves the music and puts on full display the group’s commitment to sound, imagery and feeling. After all, what do we remember best about Enter the Dragon; its dialogue and narrative continuity? Or was its legacy cemented by other, more evocative elements?